Student debt at all-time high

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/2824734,CST-NWS-debt22.article

Recent grads also deal with record unemployment for their age group

October 22, 2010

BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter/[e-mail]

Like any soon-to-be college graduate, Rachel Christensen isn't quite sure what her future holds, although the Loyola University Chicago student can be sure of this: It will involve paying off $35,000 in college debts.

"If I were going to guess, it would take at least 15 years -- unless I score some fantastic job," said Christensen, 23, who expects to graduate in May with a double bachelor's degree in music and journalism.

When she graduates, she'll join the ranks of four-year college grads facing an increasingly large mountain of student loan debt -- as well as a double whammy of an increasing unemployment rate for grads.

According to numbers released Thursday by the Project on Student Debt, four-year college grads in the United States, on average, graduated in 2009 with $24,000 in student loan debt, a record high.

[rfranklin]

1. How many graduates in other countries leave school with this kind of debt?

Virtually none I suspect.

[Seedersandleechers]

2. I watch

Howard Clark on HLN because I think he's really smart about money. He says your student loan should not be more than you will make your first year. I remember my ex writing a check for a semester at KU for $250. (early 70's) and a $500 check for a semester of Dental school. On the other hand my son has a debt of $150,00 for 3 years of law school in NYC. His yearly salary is more then that so I think he will be ok.

[MadHound]

4. Tell him to pay off that student debt ASAP,

The next great thing in outsourcing is the legal profession, and it would be a hard thing for him to have his job disappear overseas, yet still be stuck with a lot of that debt.

[dkf]

3. Music and journalism?

Not sure what the opportunities are in those fields but I would say it is not promising.

[Coyote_Bandit]

5. And yet we refuse to recognize the distinction between

having credentials and being educated (in the broad sense of being well-read and able to think critically).

One can have credentials and not be educated.

One can be educated without being credentialed.

One can be neither educated or credentialed and have the skills to have significant employment.

Nonetheless we seem to think that if we send little Johnnie and Susie off to college that they will be able to get a good job.

[exboyfil]

6. Robert Reich's proposal is that state tuition

be tied to 10% of your salary for 10 years after graduation. A teacher making $30K after graduation would pay $30K, while an engineer would pay $60K.

Current tuition in our state is about $7K/yr. Engineering students are already asked to kick in an extra $2K/yr.

Societally is it a good idea to ask the higher incomes to subsidize the lower incomes in college? How many engineering students would opt out of such a plan. They have gone from borrowing $36K to paying back $60K.

If proposal includes room and board ($8K/yr for $36K), then 10% would be insufficient to fund proposal. Would we see the 10% go up in the future if salaries do not continue to rise?